I don’t really know. I WANTED it to be like The Dick van Dyke Show, but there were 5 of us kids.
No musical talent, so Partridge Family is out.
Not a blended family, so no Brady Bunch (thank god).
Dad was a doctor (teaches residents, does research and expert witness stuff); Mom was an RN, medical director and managed some prison health care staffs. There were 4 girls and 1 boy–5 kids in 5 years. Parents divorced when I was 14 and remarried (one another) when I was 21. I don’t watch soaps, but perhaps that would be a better fit?
I’ll say a cross between Six Feet Under (w/o the gay sib) and --I dunno–can I have the Cosby’s w/o any affection or togetherness? Maybe the Facts of Life with Mrs Garret emotionally unavailable?
My family is eerily similar to the family in Malcolm in the Middle. Goof ball dad, strict ever-present all-knowing mom, and four trouble making boys (with a sister born much later). In fact once my parents were introduced to the show it became their favorite, and would always comment on how similar our two families are.
But if I had to choose between the two given, I would say the Connors.
On the outside, we looked like the Cosby’s, excluding the fancy house and wealth. We were middle-class, city-dwelling black folks–both parents possessing advanced degrees and four not-so-bad looking kids. We spoke “proper” English, had polite manners, and never got into any legal troubles. My father, as an elementary school principal, could also be charming like Cosby. He would do magic tricks and play pizza chef whenever we hosted sleep-overs, and do things so hilarious they would make milk shoot out of your nose. My mother was Mrs. Do-It-All like Claire, with the same gentle but nonsense quality. Where we lived, we probably looked very much like the Cosby’s.
But behind closed doors, often we were more like a show that would never be put on air because it would have been too hard to watch. Both parents were raised in working-class backgrounds, and lived by the I’m-gonna-beat-your-butt school of discipline. I live with memories of one sister getting a broomstick broken across her back by my mother and another getting her nose bloodied by my father, who had the worst of tempers. They were loving, my folks, but there was no playful banter between us kids and them like you see on TV. Seen but not heard was the unspoken motto. They also fought a lot, and in much scarier ways than on “Roseanne”. And while none of us kids were bratty, we did have our share of rebelliousness, completely with bouts of running away and drug use and family therapy.
I think we were probably more what the Cosby’s would have looked like if it had been a reality show instead of a sitcom.
After meeting my family for the first time, my husband described them as a John Waters movie, so I guess if John Waters made a sitcom, that would be about right.
More like the Conner family, though I came in thinking you meant the Sarah Conner family. Seriously though, as a young child I had a single mother and we moved around a lot.
But still, more Conner because even when my Mom permanently moved in with her now husband, who you’d think was at least comfortable financially being a math professor, I always got the sense that money was tight and that we were not as well off as other families. But then a good number of my friends came from a wealthy part of town, so part of that feeling might have been relative.
My mother w/three girls married a man w/4 boys and a girl, we were all of the same age with in a few months or so, except for the youngest girl, Brady Bunch was popular back then…we were NOTHING like the Brady Bunch. (shutter). I’m thankful we all didn’t live in the same house…there would have been blood.
The Connor family, without the humor and a lot of the love.
There was always a lot of yelling and screaming. And hitting, from Mom. She was always happy to smack me for any reason. Never ABUSE, I never wore a bruise, but just open handed smacks if she thought I needed it. I heard from the time I was 6 or 7 just what a disappointment I was to her; she wanted some delicate little flower that took ballet lessons. Instead, she got me, who lived and breathed horses.
Dad was the loving parent, but he worked 2 jobs so he was rarely home. Mom worked, too, sometimes 2 jobs, sometime 1, and when she was home, I literally don’t remember her ever laughing. We weren’t pppr in that we had to miss meals, my parents always had nice cars, and God knows there was always money for bingo several times a week for them, but there was never money left over for ‘fun’ stuff for me-no camp, etc. Oh, they bought me all the newest toys for birthdays & Christmas; the problem was they never got to know ME, and always bought everynewbabydoll* that came out.
I hated dolls.
They went right into my closet with all the rest, never to be seen again, while I played with the few horse statues they had bought or read or drew.
Boy, I must have lucked out. There was some pretty bad screaming and fighting but mostly we laughed and laughed. And the screaming and fighting-- even a fistfight or 10-- was smothered in love.
Grace under fire.
My divorced mom worked her ass of to raise 3 boys and a girl. She never said a bad thing about my (alcoholic) dad. As a matter of fact after my dad had a stroke, when we were older she would have us go get him (3 1/2 hours away) for holidays because it wasn’t right that anyone should be alone during the holidays.
I think my mom was a saint.
Up until I was 6 more cosby. Very Donna Reed, Father Knows Best happy nuclear Family.
When I was 6 my parents split and Mom, sis and I moved in with Mom’s parents so it was more like My Three Sons (except without any y’know, sons). One parent and extra older good influences. Only my mom was snarky like Uncle Charlie and my grandparents were level headed and wise like Steve.
When we got our own apartment we were like One Day at a Time - single mom, two daughters.
Getting back to the original question, still more Connor. My mom left college after one semester (welcome to the world, baby girl) so no degree, but intelligent and had grown up in a more Cosby than Connor family (minus that whole getting knocked up bit) so her jobs were white collar. In terms of her demeanor my mom was closer to Roseanne then Claire.
Hmmmm. My first reaction was Conner, we were very blue-collar. However, there was not a lot of fighting and yelling and in personality my mother is nothing like Roseanne.
Mine certainly wasn’t the Cosbys but it wasn’t really Roseanne either unless you throw in a lot more drama and make the parents more educated. We didn’t really have any sort of normal family life at all.
Seriously though, as a young child I had a single mother and we moved around a lot.